By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Vandals and bracing weather couldn’t dampen the turnout for Hampton Park’s Anzac Day dawn service on 25 April.
In the lead-up, vandals had trampled the memorial’s garden beds and tagged the poignant murals with graffiti at Arthur Wren Hall.
Just the day before Anzac Day, the lavender and rosemary bushes were flattened and bark mulch displaced from the site.
With the help of local businesses’ donations, volunteer made the drastic, last-minute repairs, Hampton Park Progress Association treasurer Vanassa Gerdes said.
Ms Gerdes said the vandalism showed the need for CCTV at the well-lit hall and memorial.
But at the dawn service, “the Anzac spirit was there in spades,” she said.
A crowd of 300, including representatives from Hampton Park Cubs and Joey Scouts, Hampton Park Football Club, Navy Cadets and Dandenong RSL, huddled at the honour-board memorial outside Arthur Wren Hall.
Federal Holt MP Anthony Bryne and Casey councillor Damien Rosario were among those paying respects.
A highlight was a speech by Mackenzie Morrison, 13, on her family’s history.
Her great-great-grandfather John ‘Jack’ Reedy and great-grandfather Neville Merrigan fought in World War I and World War II respectively.
Mackenzie said the day was for saluting “our current protectors in the armed forces” and honouring the sacrifice of those who “didn’t make it home”.
“(It is) also about celebrating those that returned home and despite suffering war-inflicted physical and mental conditions, put their heart and souls into their communities in honour and on behalf of their fallen mates.”
Sgt Reedy fought and lost friends in the AIF 5th division’s 29th Battalion in the Battle of Fromelles, in which there were more than 5500 casualities in 24 hours.
He was later awarded for his bravery under heavy shell fire and yellow cross gas during the Battle of Morlancourt in 1918.
After the war, he married Dolly and started dairy farming at ‘Glen Stewart’ on Hallam Road, Hampton Park – now the site of Peppercorn Park, Mackenzie told the crowd.
“Despite suffering ill health due to gas attacks in the war, Jack was heavily involved in school committees, fire brigade, the Masonic Lodge, the progress association and the Voluntary Defence Corp during World War II.”
Mr Merrigan, who was to be John Reedy’s son-in-law, spent three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Changi and working on the Thai Burma railway, Mackenzie said.
He settled with wife Edna with his own dairy farm on Hallam Road, now occupied by a child-care centre, and also “involved himself in community”.
The service, followed by a free breakfast, coffee and tea, was organised by volunteers from the Hampton Park Progress Association.
